For Better, For Worse: The Serpent's Contract Wife

Chapter 132: Caught In The Act

[Music: Drowning By Saint Vice]

The switchblade slipped from my grip and hit the floor with a sharp clatter.

I was mentally panicking right now and was so close to losing my shit. What’s he doing here? How did he find me? Shouldn’t he be away from the city in an important business meeting?

Oh no. God no. This can’t be happening!

The swell of relief as well as dread bordered me to no end. I couldn’t decide which had a hold on me more. I dropped my gaze because looking at his eyes was becoming the hardest thing to do.

That action made me take in his casual clothes, yet it didn’t seem so, and only made him more intimidating, and down to business.

A biker jacket stretched across his broad shoulder, a fitted shirt beneath outlining the hard planes of his chest and stomach. Dark jeans hugged those powerful thighs, disappearing into boots.

I wasn’t sure which had me more affected, the thought of him being here or the sight of him in that getup that made my pussy pulse in need.

Now is not the fucking time for that, Ana! Think, think, think!

"I-I don’t have a husband. I think you’ve got me confused with someone else."

I’m dumb. Because if that was the best I could come up with, then I was already fucking doomed.

A dark look swirled in his gaze. For the first time in a while, I got a clear view of those gemstones, and their brightness made me momentarily stunned.

"Nice try."

I shivered at that gravelly voice of his. I didn’t realize how much I missed it until now. But I’m awakened by that dark undertone that tells me I was in a very, very bad position.

"You think a wig and makeup will keep me from recognizing my wife? Think again."

I parted my lips. "Z-Zade—"

"By the way, that wig looks absurd on you."

"I-It does not!" I defended.

Even though this was not the time for something like that, this still counts! The wig was damn beautiful!

Zade chuckled like a smooth storm about to consume my whole heart. "That should be the least of your worries."

"Back at you."

I really shouldn’t egg him, but I can’t help it if I’m designed to tell off a snake.

"That outfit though..." He took a step closer, into the bright lights, and my knees almost buckled.

I had felt disgust when Shane dragged his eyes all over me, but now it felt as if I was on fire, about to be tossed into a boiling pot too.

The way he looked at me rivaled everything else I had experienced.

"You better stop me, kitten..." he murmured. "I’m this close to going on a murder spree."

"Wha-What are you doing here?"

"I should be asking that question. I didn’t realize the academy had upgraded."

"You’ve been watching me."

He had to, or else there wasn’t any explanation, unless Dante grew more suspicious and told on me.

His smirk was all the answer I needed.

That shouldn’t affect me, but it does in all the wrong ways. I was relieved because there was an icky thought I wasn’t succumbing to my own darkness alone.

"Then you know why I’m here," I said in a whisper to hide the crack in them.

Shane might have imprinted dread into my skin at the mention of Zade ever finding out, but the reckoning was already here, and I might as well deal with it.

"A-Are you gonna kill me?" Those words were the hardest I’ve ever uttered, compared to the times I had brought them up more than once in the last few months.

Then it was simply disrespect, but this was different; I had done something a Don despises more than anything. He could put a bullet in my head right here and now without a shred of hesitation. I was his wife, but betrayal was betrayal.

"Killing is hardly what’s on my mind right now."

"I betrayed you!" I shrieked, my insides quivering on the verge of collapse.

I waited for his anger or anything, any fucking thing that showed the look of a man who had been betrayed, but I got nothing.

"Yes, you did," he replied, amused.

I wasn’t sure if I was dumbfounded or enraged that he wasn’t responding as he should.

"I-I sided with Shane!"

"Yes." He walked toward me, and only when he got too close did I start backing away.

For every step he took forward, I took one back, our movements perfectly matched until my retreat came to an abrupt stop.

"I was gonna give him the one thing that’d bring you down."

I raised the flash drive to prove my point, but this man doesn’t even look at the damn thing.

"Did you?" he countered, and the question sent a chill through my spine.

He’d been watching me the whole time, yet he made no move to step out of the shadows.

He could have shown himself way before I stepped onto that stage, or when I led that man back here... or on my way to Shane.

"I-I was gonna give him this..." My voice broke, the reins in my emotion crushing, and everything I had tried to push back in the last few days unravelled.

Guilt, confusion, and pain. God, so much pain, my heart was wrenching as if it was gonna be sliced in two.

"But you didn’t."

I shook my head as tears streamed down my cheeks.

"I was going to!" I screamed at him.

I drove my clenched fists into his chest, pounding against the hard wall of muscle. With every strike, pain shot through my hands, but I couldn’t stop.

Zade remained a statue without moving a single inch. He let me take out everything on him like he was one at fault, like he deserved every hit.

A sob wrecked through me as I pressed my forehead against his chest, allowing the pain to consume me. I cried loudly as I squeezed my hands on his jacket.

With a shuddering breath, I lifted my gaze, and my heart clenched when I saw that soft look in his eyes, but this time, he didn’t let it disappear so soon.

"You knew all this time, didn’t you?" I found my voice.

Zade rested his hand beneath my chin, and at the mere contact, I was driven toward the point of breakage.

"Since our date."

All that time... and he acted normal? As if the news of his wife siding with his enemy didn’t affect him.

"W-Why didn’t you say anything?"

"To prove a point."

I stepped away from him, gaping at him like he had grown two heads.

"Don’t give me that look, kitten. We wouldn’t be here if you hadn’t chosen me."

I chose him.

A voice in my head resonated with his words, but on the surface, I shook my head slowly as if that would even matter at this moment.

"I hate you." I sobbed.

"I know."

"I wish you’d burn in hell!"

"This is my hell, and you’re my heaven."

"You—"

"Whoever put that idea in your head..." His jaw tightened. "That I had something with Annabeth. I never did."

Before I could speak, he beat me to it.

"The only woman I’ve wanted and starved for is you. Anyone and anything else is inconsequential."

My heart momentarily stopped. "Y-You’re lying..."

"Am I?" he growled, eating up the leftover space between us. "Of all the things, Anastasia. That’s the one thing I’ve never lied about."

I kissed him before I could think better of it. The moment I realized what I’d done, I tried to pull away, but Zade caught my lips in a searing kiss, and every ounce of resistance melted away.

My mouth raced hotly against his, sending melting chills down my spine. Zade’s hand slipped to the back of my neck while the other pulled me closer until I could feel every hard line of his body.

With every passing second, the speed of our mouths interlocking, hastened, becoming too fast to keep up with. I needed to breathe through this furnace, but that was the least of my worries.

I didn’t wanna let him go.

So I secured my arms around his neck, keeping him right where I wanted him, but Zade had another thing in mind.

His fingers sank into my waist. Without effort, he picked me up, and I eagerly wrapped my legs around his muscular waist.

My back hit the cold wall as the kiss deepened, but Zade pulled away, resting his forehead against mine as we both struggled to catch our breath.

"Give Shane the flash drive."

"What?" I rasped, focusing too much on his lips that had been smeared with my lipstick.

The urge to lick them off was overly tempting, but his next words broke my focus.

"Do you trust me?"

My heart skipped a beat, but I answered only what I could at the moment. "I want to."